ABSTRACT
ALYSSA RENAYE OLIVERI. A Radiation Safety Education Intervention for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists. (Under the Direction of DR. STEPHANIE WOODS, PH.D., RN)
CRNAs provide anesthesia for surgeries that utilize ionizing radiation daily and must possess the knowledge to protect themselves from the negative biological sequelae that can be caused by ionizing radiation exposure. CRNAs must remain compliant with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) ionizing radiation standards, and not exceed an annual whole body dose equivalent of 1.25 rem per quarter, or 5 rem per year (OSHA, n.d.). By increasing awareness of the risks of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation in the anesthesia setting, safer radiation precautions and practices can be promoted to aid in minimizing workplace exposure. The PICO question for the quality improvement (QI) project is, “In Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, does a radiation safety online educational intervention improve knowledge of radiation safety measures?” For the implementation of this project, an online education intervention was distributed to 157 CRNAs at a Level I trauma center. The intervention contained a pre-test consisting of four demographic and 11 knowledge-based questions, a narrated radiation safety infographic, and a post-test consisting of the same knowledge-based questions as the pre-test. Data analysis revealed that the educational infographic enhanced CRNAs knowledge of radiation safety. Moreover, CRNAs demonstrated the most improvement in their knowledge of potential health hazards of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. The QI project recommends a strong emphasis on increasing distance away from the radiation source, custom fit lead, acknowledgement of ionizing radiation use during the surgical time-out, and for CRNAs to be sent their quarterly dosimeter reports.